


Mind Games

by batwayneman



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Bat Family, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 12:24:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9384926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batwayneman/pseuds/batwayneman
Summary: Bruce and Talia are bad at communicating, and Damian is good at getting out of trouble.





	

Bruce walked into the kitchen in the morning, not expecting anyone else to be there. He himself didn’t want to be awake this early in the morning, but after the events of the previous night, he wanted to go into the cave to start working on a plan to find the Riddler. Damian should still be asleep, and though Tim and Cass had gotten home before he and Damian had, they weren’t likely to be up yet. They had been working hard on a case together recently, but their last lead had been a dead end. Dick was still in Blüdhaven, and no one knew where Jason was. After the bombing last night, he was privately happy to have a few hours of calm to himself before his children woke up. The only other person he expected to be up was Alfred, who often started chores before the rest of the house woke up and the inevitable chaos of a new day began.

He did not expect Talia al Ghul to be sitting at the table, calmly sipping from a mug.

Suddenly feeling more awake, he crossed the floor slowly and sat down across from her without saying anything. Better to see what she wanted first. She was sitting upright in the chair, back stiff, one hand holding a mug of tea and one holding a newspaper. It quickly became apparent that she wasn’t going to speak, but before Bruce could say anything, Alfred entered the room carrying a plate of muffins and a mug of coffee. He placed the muffins on the table between them and the coffee in front of Bruce. As Alfred exited the room, he shot a clear look at Bruce that said he was going to get no backup with whatever was going to happen.

This is what he gets for coming in late, Bruce supposed.

“What are you doing here.” he finally said. Talia looked up for the first time. There was something annoying in the fact that she had her makeup and hair perfect so early in the morning, while he had just gotten out of bed. He wondered if she did it on purpose.

“I am drinking tea.” she said, and looked back down at the newspaper.

“You could be doing that anywhere.” Bruce pointed out. She ignored him, and having finished reading the newspaper, folded it back up and put it next to her. She took another sip of her tea between tight lips.

“Talia. Why are you here?” Bruce repeated. She put the mug down very carefully, but her glare was sharp as glass.

“I am here because I wanted to make sure my son was unhurt after the spectacle of last night!” she snapped, and tossed the newspaper in front of Bruce. Bruce pulled it towards himself. The picture that took up most of the front page was of a very impressive shot of a building on fire just after the bomb had detonated the night before. One side of the building had been demolished, and the walls that were still standing were nearly obscured with fire and smoke. The headline read “HISTORIC BUILDING PAYS PRICE AS BATMAN, ROBIN, AND RIDDLER CLASH”. Bruce sighed.

“He’s fine, he’s just upstairs.” said Bruce meeting her gaze again.

“I want to see him myself.” She said tersely.

“He’ll be up later, you can see him then.” Bruce replied. Talia huffed out a breath through her nose and looked away from him. Bruce decided to wait out her inevitable anger, and took a sip of his coffee. If he had known Talia was going to be waiting to ambush him in his own house he would have asked for Tim’s coffee with the extra expresso. After a few moments, Talia looked back at him, and spat, “What was Damian even doing there? What you were thinking bring a child to a fight with live bombs-”

“We both know that child had faced worse that those bombs before he came here,” She narrowed her eyes. “Regardless, Damian wasn’t supposed to be in that building with me in first place.”

“Then why was he? Do you have so little control of your children that you can’t keep them out of a building armed with a bomb?” She sneered.

“Telling my children not to do something, is usually best way to make them do it.” Bruce said impassively. “Even if there is a bomb involved.” He thinks they might actually listen to him less when there was danger involved, but Talia didn’t need to know that.

Talia opened her mouth to respond, when the door creaked and she turned to look. Bruce, used to the sound of his daughter entering the kitchen in the morning, took the brief reprieve to take bite of a muffin.

“Good morning Cass.” he said as she sat next to him. She smiled and took the muffin out of his hand, taking a bite of it herself before putting it back in his hand and grabbing one from the plate.

“Hello Cassandra.” Talia said. Cass nodded her head in acknowledgement, and took another bite of the muffin. The three sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Bruce, where is the bathroom?” Talia asked. He shot her a look.

“You know where it is.” he replied. She would definitely have scouted the house as soon as she arrived.

She frowned at him, but didn’t refute it. She stood from the chair abruptly.

“There’s no need to be rude, it’s not my fault you were too tired to notice me breaking into your house”. She walked off.

“There’s no need to pretend to be stupid either.” Bruce said to her retreating back. She didn’t respond, but Cass laughed under her breath.

“She didn’t break in. Just so you know.” Bruce turned to stare at her. Cass took a bite of her muffin.

“Jason let her in.” Cass elaborated. Bruce’s mug hit the table a little harder than he intended when he put it down.

“When did Jason get here?” Bruce asked astonished. Not one but two people had entered his house without him know.

“Earlier. He found a lead for our case, wanted to share so we could make a plan before night.” She took a final bite of the muffin to finish it. “They’re in the cave.”

“Tim’s up?”

“Jason woke him.” Cass said sadly.

“That’s unfortunate.” Bruce replied. Tim and Cass had been up late this week working on his robbery case, but at least Cass knew when to take a nap. She hummed in agreement, then stretched, reaching her hands into the sky, and stood up.

“Damian knows she’s here,” Cass said, nodding to where Talia had been. She grabbed two more muffins before continuing, “He’ll be down soon.”

“You told him?”

“Of course.” She said innocently.

“Why.” Bruce asked suspiciously. Surprising Damian was difficult, and his siblings often sought out opportunities to catch him off guard. Dick took great pride in informing everyone he was winning by a long shot, but the race for second place was tight.

Cass grinned slyly, “He owes me now.” She left the room, presumably to take the muffins to her brothers in the cave.

Bruce sighed. This was her way of warning him that she had something planned, but that he wasn’t the target (or she wouldn’t have said anything at all), and needed Damian’s co-operation. He could only hope that whichever brother had found themselves in her sights would tread lightly, so that this wouldn’t escalate into another house wide war.

 

When Talia returned, she sat down silently. She had apparently decided to wait until she saw Damian to say anything more. This was more than acceptable to Bruce. He had time to finish his coffee before the door creaked again.

“Mother, Father. Good morning,” Damian said as he entered the room and stood at the head of the table.

“Damian,” Talia smiled for the first time since she had arrived. “How are you? You’re not hurt, are you? I heard about the bombing last night.”

“I’m fine.” Damian said. “It was an unfortunate accident, but it did not compromise the mission, the Riddler should be caught by tomorrow”

“As long as you’re alright” Talia said, marginally relaxing at the sight of her child clearly unharmed. Damian seemed to take affront to this.

“I’m not a child, I can handle myself.” Damian said dismissively. Talia looked at him and frowned.

“I wasn’t implying that you couldn’t,” she said, “But in a volatile situation I would expect your father to protect you better. Why you were there in the first place-”

Before Bruce could defend himself, Damian spoke fiercely: “Father needed me there, I’m his partner. Besides, I’ve trained to handle all situations and-”

“Your father” Bruce interrupted, “actually needed you to watch the exits for the bomb. not enter an armed building to join the fistfight.” Damian rounded on Bruce, a familiar fire in his eyes.

“You didn’t even know the bomb was inside until I told you!”

“You told me after, on the way home. We have a comms link. Sharing information about a live bomb is not the same thing as coming in through the window and kicking a man into the wall.” Bruce deadpanned. He couldn’t let Damian know, but he had thought that it had been quite funny at the time. Riddler’s shocked face as a member of his backup was launched into the wall by the tiny furious Robin coming in through the window had almost made it all worth it. It would have been hilarious, if the bomb hadn’t gone off a few moments later.

Damian huffed angrily. “As I said last night, Father, I saw someone fiddling with the bomb on one of the upper floors, and entered to help you LEAVE before it detonated. That’s my duty.” Bruce sighed. Damian narrowed his eyes, doing a very impressive job of looking as haughty as he could.

“You still knowingly entered a building that was about to blow up!” Talia said sharply.

“To be fair,” Bruce said, “Even the Riddler didn’t know they were going to blow up. He didn’t detonate them on purpose.” She turned her furious glare at him. He continued, unperturbed, “That was the only regular base he was using, he’s didn’t ruin his own base intentionally. He bought a cheap, clearly faulty bomb, and it blew up in his face.”

“Literally.” said Damian sharing an impish smile with Bruce. Talia frowned.

“Still, you disobeyed a direct order,” she hesitated, “You should have listened to your father.” Bruce and Damian turned to stare at her, both in disbelief. Bruce certainly hadn’t been expecting backup. She pretended not to see them and continued, “He does know what he’s doing,” she paused again, “and you put yourself in danger.”

“Mother!” Damian said indignantly, “I’m always in danger! I’m the son of Batman and the Demon’s Daughter! You don’t understand, I was simply trying to-”

“Do not use that tone with me Damian.” Talia warned in a low voice. Damian opened his mouth to respond, but shut it again and took a deep breath. Bruce wondered why that line worked with Talia, but had never worked with him.

“Mother,” Damian said in a much calmer voice, “I was merely doing what I was trained to by the League, to make the calls that other people cannot, and act! Father needed my assistance, and I could act, so I did. It’s as simple as that.”

Bruce met Talia’s eyes. He was trying to not seem smug that it was her training that had brought this on this particular defiance. Based on her expression he wasn’t trying hard enough.

“That is no excuse. As you very well know, the League has a clear chain of command that must be followed. Even with good intentions, you disobeyed a direct order, and that is dangerous. And you,” she said, spinning to glare at Bruce. “Maybe instead of just sitting there you could help me talk to your son?” she spat. He returned her glare, but turned to Damian.

“Damian, I-” Bruce started to speak, but Damian was quick to interrupt him.

“Just because your past Robins weren’t competent doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be!” Damian hissed.

“Don’t talk about your siblings that way.” Bruce snapped. But something wasn’t right; when Damian had first come to live in the Manor he berated his siblings constantly, but it had been a long time since he had said something with such obvious intent to hurt, rather than to provoke or annoy. He didn’t have the same disdainful look in his eyes that he usually had when insulting his family. So why was he saying something he didn’t mean? But before he could think more on it, Talia interrupted his thoughts.

“Don’t you snap at him. He’s right, your other children have no respect for order or discipline. And now Damian has followed suit!” She said.

“He’s been disrespectful of authority since he came here, don’t foist that on me.”

“He was never insolent with me. Perhaps he does not see you as an authority figure.” she sneered. He ignored the jab.

“He was literally surrounded by assassins and murderers, most children would act more obedient out of fear.” He was, of course, ignoring his own children’s tendency to antagonize villains.

“Oh, like Gotham is so much better, with madmen and criminals and running around, accidentally blowing up buildings!”

“You cannot blame Gotham’s crime because your son talks back to you.” Bruce replied, “Especially when he used to live in a League that is designed to train criminals and assassins!”

“The League creates order, unlike this city full of nothing but chaos and ruin! You and your children have such disrespect for rules-”

Throughout this exchange, Damian had calmly watched his parents quarrel in front of him like it was a boring tennis match. Unconcerned, he drew out his phone, and starting to type. Neither noticed when he walked away from the table, both too invested in arguing with each other.

“-can’t believe you’re still go on about my parenting, when this is the first time we’ve seen you in a year!” Bruce said coldly.

“I’ve been busy doing actual work that affects the world, not just playing around in a broken city.”

“Did you somehow miss the alien attack that I fought in last month?”

“Must have been too small for me to have noticed. It must have been minor, if you and your pathetic League could deal with it,” Talia said sarcastically.

“At least my League is made of heroes, instead of the deranged killers in yours.” Bruce said, his lips pressed into an angry straight line. Talia scoffed and turned away from him in a violent motion. She suddenly froze, some of the tension in her body leaving in surprise.

“When did Damian leave?” she asked. Bruce turned to look where his son had been.

“He must have snuck out when we were-” Bruce paused, thinking, “bickering,” he said, deciding on his choice of word.

Talia snorted indelicately, “He got away from the world’s best detective and a master spy without either of them noticing,” she turned to look back at him. “This one seems like both our faults.”

Bruce recognized an olive branch when he saw one.

“He _was_ trained by the best.” he pointed out.

“In more ways than one.” she said. Bruce met her eyes, having reached the same conclusion that she had.

“He played us.” he said gravely.

 “Yes. With no shame.” she said, shaking her head slightly in disbelief, a small smile on her face. “He knew we would bicker with each other, so he could slip away unnoticed. He set the bait and walked away.”

“We didn’t exactly provide mush resistance.” Bruce pointed out.

She gave a long-suffering sigh.

“I take it back,” she said. Bruce raised his eyebrows at her in question.

“This is on you.” she said. She had a familiar, teasing smile on her face.

Bruce thought of his other children, and their ability to manipulate him to avoid being chastised. Dick’s long stream of words used to sidetrack Bruce; Jason’s offensive approach, used to point out the things that Bruce had done wrong; Tim’s ability to simply disappear long past when Bruce’s anger expired; Cass’s grin that she blatantly used to catch him off guard before he could find a leg to stand on. None of the strategies worked all the time, but they worked far too often for Bruce’s liking. It wasn’t surprising that Damian too had become an expert.

Bruce and Talia had never stood a chance.

“That’s probably fair.”

Talia laughs.

A few of comfortable minutes later, Bruce got up from the table.

“He’s probably in the cave,” he said by way of invitation. Talia stood up and followed him.

“You know,” she said slyly, as they waited for the elevator, “you might have slept longer if you had taken a painkiller for your ribs.” He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She was looking at him knowingly. “The bomb, I assume?” she asked.

_Bruce had barely had time to take in the shock on the Riddler’s face as his son crashed into the henchmen before everything exploded. He was thrown, twisting in midair from the shockwave, and landed hard on his back against a hard piece of rubble. The familiar pain crawled from his ribs to his spine, but he didn’t notice. He had to find Damian. He pushed himself to his knees, peering wildly around. Where was Damian, where- there. He was only about 5 feet away, already climbing to his feet. Unhurt, all limbs moving normally and a familiar look of wild excitement that spoke of an adrenaline rush on his face. Bruce pushed himself to his feet and they both ran away from the blast site._

“Just bruised,” he said, coming back to himself.

“Of course. You always were bad at taking care of yourself,” she teased.

He looked at her again, quietly taking in the strangeness of her casually standing in his home.

“Talia, why are you really here?” he asked softly.

“Excuse me?” she demanded, furious again. “I’m here to see my son, who I thought may have been injured in an explosion, how dare you-”

“We’ve faced much worse than a defective bomb, and you’ve never come out before,” he said lowly. The elevator opened its doors and he stepped in, holding the door open for her. She hesitated, but stepped inside. The doors closed.

She took a deep breath and sighed.

“There’s been rumours of a large arms trade going down. I heard that a man named Adam Forst was involved, and that he used to deal arms in Gotham. I figured you might have more information.”

Bruce was a statue beside her.

“So you didn’t come to see your son, you just came for business.” he said shortly, angry on Damian’s behalf.

“No,” she snapped. “I _wanted_ to come see him before I heard news of the deal, but when the rumours came up I had to get involved. It would have been selfish to abandon the case because I missed my son.” She took a deep breath before continuing.  
“The lead happened to lead to an arms dealer from Gotham. It was an opportunity to see my son _and_ take care of business.” She paused, looking at him desperately. “Surely of all people you can understand the difficulty duty with parenting?”

Bruce said nothing.

“I heard about the stupid bombing when I arrived this morning and-” She trailed off.

“I was afraid I had missed my chance.” she finished quietly.

Bruce turned his head to look at her. She was staring at the ground, eyes glazed, the picture of fear and distress.

He knew she was manipulating him. She usually was, it was their chosen method of communicating with each other, but she had been too obvious this time. The careful inflection when she spoke of her fear of being too late to see her son alive was far too deliberate a reference to be to be completely genuine. And he was furious at her for bringing _that_ up.

But Bruce also knew that she did love Damian, just not always a way that he could understand. There was truth in her words and fears, even if she used them like weapons to disarm him to get her way. She didn’t know how to communicate without manipulating, and he didn’t know how to defend himself without tearing the other person down.

But Damian deserved to have two parents.

“If I give you this information, are you going to kill him,” Bruce asked flatly.

She raised her head to look at him, surprised.

“No.” She said solemnly. “I just need to know what he knows, to stop the trade.”

Bruce nodded. He didn’t know if she genuinely needed the dealer’s intel, or was just refusing to use Bruce’s information to facilitate a murder, but either way was good enough, for now.

The elevator opened to the cave.

 

Tim was closest to them, in front of the main computers typing furiously. Bruce makes a mental note to ask if Tim wants help going over the new information before tonight.

Far more noticeable was Damian and Jason training. Neither boy paused in their fight as Talia and Bruce walked over to the edge of the training mats to watch. Damian didn’t seem to care that the parents that he can exercised complete control over just a few minutes ago we standing side by side again. They watched for a few moments, both boys were fighting hard, but neither were landing many hits.

“Jason, you’re telegraphing you punches with your shoulders again.” Bruce observed.

“Screw you” Jason snapped automatically, making a wild grab for Damian, who danced out of his grasp my inches before going on the offensive again. “I’m only in here because the brat was pestering me about training. Nitpick him if you’re so bored.” Jason dodged Damian’s jab, and the two were instantly at it again.

That was odd. Damian usually preferred to train with Bruce directly, and rarely trained with his siblings, let alone asking directly. Unless-

Bruce looked around the cave and saw Cass looking completely casual as she walked over to where Tim was sitting. She had come from the storage area. Apparently she was wasting no time cashing in her favour with Damian, and it seemed Jason was her target. He looked back at Talia, who was watching her son spar with a small, satisfied smile on her face. Bruce left them, and walked over to Cass.

She smiled at him as he approached, looking the picture of innocence. He raises his eyebrows and glances in the direction of the storage area. Her smile transformed, her innocence transformed into mischief in instant, and pulled out her phone.

On it was a picture of Jason’s jacket, where someone, presumably Cass, had put patches onto the back so that they spelled out “Problem Child”. It had a single sad emoji on it. He looks back at Cass, exasperated and amused despite himself.

“Any particular reason?” He asked her, trying not to sound to sound as amused as he was.

“He woke Tim up.” she said seriously, by way of explanation.

“Ah.” Bruce said. It was hard to feel too bad for Jason, after he had purposely let Talia into the Manor and had woken Tim. He was practically volunteering to be a target.

Jason could hold his own in these prank fights, and besides, he doubted that Cass had attached the patches permanently to the jacket. She wanted to mess with Jason, not cause another family war.

She walked over to Tim, and his bark of laughter tells Bruce that soon Jason’s jacket will soon be known to everyone in the family.

Bruce went over to the database computer, and pulled up Adam Forst’s file (-inactive for 6 years; provided artillery for Harvey Dent [Two-Face]), and looked back towards the gym as it began downloading onto a disposable USB.

Jason and Damian had stopped sparring. Damian and Talia were speaking to each other, too quiet for him to hear, but Jason was walking towards him.

“You’re giving info to her?” Jason asked, nodding to the computer. Bruce nodded. Jason hummed, faintly surprised. The stood beside each other, both watching Talia and Damian.

“You found a lead on their case?” Bruce asked absentmindedly.

“Yeah. Some idiot got drunk in a bar and was telling anyone who would listen which building they were going after next.”

Bruce nodded; loud drunks often made detective work much easier. Jason stood there a moment more, then started to walk away.

“Jason,” Bruce called after him, eyes still on Talia and Damian, “Maybe next time give a warning when you invite assassins inside the Manor?”

“No chance B.”

Bruce took a deep, calming breath and closed his eyes, just for a second. When he opened them, he grabbed the USB and walked over to where Talia and Damian were still talking.

 

They both looked up at him as he approached them.

“This is what I have on him.” Bruce said, handing her the drive. She swiftly put it in her pocket, smiling her thanks.

“I have to track him down before he knows I’m coming for him, I have to go.” She looked regretful.

“Of course Mother.” Damian said haughtily. “It’s your duty.” She looked down at him, a sad smile on her face.

“I’ll see you soon Damian, I promise.” She pulled him into a hug. Damian’s spine stayed stiff, but he held onto her tightly. They withdrew, and Damian moved to stand beside Bruce, who put his hand on his shoulder. It was often difficult to tell when Damian wanted physical contact (he never asked for it), but Damian didn’t shake it off this time.

Talia looked at Bruce, eyebrows raised. “No kiss for the road?” she asked him, mischief on every line of her face.

“Not on your life.” He said grouchily. She laughed, and he had to fight to keep a smile off his face.

She turned and walked to the motorcycle, which she had parked so that it blocked the Batmobile from leaving.

With one last wave in their direction, the exit to the cave opened and she was gone with the roar of the engine.

Bruce looked down at Damian, who was still looking where his mother had been.

“Damian.” Damian met his father’s eyes. “Thank you for coming to help me with the Riddler last night. It was very brave.” Bruce knows he should have said this last night, but the look of pride in Damian’s eyes tells him that it was better late than never.

“Next time,” he said seriously, “communicate first. I need to know where you are in a fight, especially if there are bombs around.”

“tt.” Damian rolled his eyes and looked away from Bruce, but still didn’t pull away from his hand.

That was good enough for now.

“So,” Bruce smirked down at him, “did you come up with that on your own?” Bruce asked, looking at Damian.

Damian didn’t flinch. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” he said.

“Really? You don’t remember making me and your mother fight each other so you could slip away?”

Damian looked up at his father, a fierce grin on his face.

“You made it too easy.”

Bruce laughed out loud, and shook his head. He ruffled Damian’s hair, who pushed his hand away with an indignant huff.  They turned to walk back the computers.

They still had to narrow down their search to go after Riddler tonight.

 

Dick woke up in the afternoon to two new messages on his phone. One is a picture message from Cass, the other a video from Damian. He clicked on Damian’s first while yawning, then froze.

It’s Talia and Bruce, both clearly furious; yelling at each other. Talia’s hands are in fists, and Bruce’s is so stiff in the chair he might as well be made of wood. He clicks play.

“-you and your family parading around Gotham like you run the place-”

“As opposed to parading around the world murdering people?”

“How do you expect to help Gotham if you can’t even control your own children?”

“Oh don’t you bring that up again, I-”

The video cut out. Dick sat in silence for a moment, then typed out ‘DAMIAN WHAT DID YOU DO?????’ and hit send.

It was too early for this.

**Author's Note:**

> The USB has a tracker in it and they both know but pretend not to because they’re dumb ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Anyway, this is my first time posting a fan fiction, so any critiques or suggestions are welcome!
> 
> I'm on tumblr, same username as here!


End file.
